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REVIEW: The Foreigner [2017]

2017/10/122020/04/25 Jared Mobarak

Trust or fear. I like a good action thriller without a clear target because it allows the story to develop where cat and mouse chases usually reside. Martin Campbell‘s The Foreigner is a good example as it shows what happens when a sharp plot is made paramount. We know who the bad guys are—a group of young IRA rebels rekindling a fight long since dormant—but not their identities. So distraught dad Quan Ngoc Minh (Jackie Chan) must improvise along his quest for vengeance after his daughter is killed in a…

REVIEW: Kung Fu Panda 2 [2011]

2011/05/212016/06/28 Jared Mobarak

“Tell those musicians to play some action music because it is on” The phrase sophomore slump wasn’t just coined out of the blue; it is a very real description for a good number of sequels overall, but especially the realm of cinema. Very few follow-ups to praised work ever earn a place to be mentioned beside their predecessors let alone become deemed a step above. And the attempt gets even harder when you’re dealing with animated children’s fare—the Toy Story films a grand exception—since most end up languishing in direct…

REVIEW: The Karate Kid [2010]

2010/06/022011/08/24 Jared Mobarak

“They call me Ping Pong Dre” Not only does Sony have the audacity to remake a classic 80s film from my childhood such as The Karate Kid, they change the heritage from Japan to China and the titular karate to kung fu. At one point the new movie was named The Kung Fu Kid, an appropriate alteration considering the very disparate cultures being utilized, but wait, we are dumb Americans that don’t know the difference between the two anyway. China and Japan? You mean Asia right? Don’t they all practice…

REVIEW: Kung Fu Panda [2008]

2008/05/312016/06/28 Jared Mobarak

“Can you handle the crazy feet?” Pixar is where it is at for me animation-wise in Hollywood. Maybe that makes me a snob, but something about their films resonate on a level that the others can’t even begin to touch. Sure Shrek and Madagascar are funny, but besides the off-belly laugh, they are kind of shallow and hollow. With that said, I went to check out Dreamworks new foray into computer graphic cinema, Kung Fu Panda. Admittedly, I knew very little about this thing other than the fact that Jack…